Adam's Adventure in Cambodia
Blog & photography by Adam Zawadzki, MFA Photography, York St John University
My time in Cambodia was a litmus test to determine whether I would enjoy being an educational facilitator and, as it transpired, I did, more than I was expecting. We successfully delivered 50 hours of environmental workshops in English at the Supplementary Education Centre over four weeks and supported 4 hours of English classes at a local university, which I loved more than I can describe here.
I wanted to experience the education system of a developing country, what it does and doesn’t do for the staff and students enmeshed in its membrane. Not only did this challenge, and it was challenging, give me a glimpse, it also opened the door to Asia for me, expanding my global outlook significantly. A continent that had hitherto appeared to me to be very definition of foreign, to such an extent that its undeniably glorious alure was overwhelmed by its sheer vastness, now doesn’t feel so remote or incomprehensible to an individual of western worldview. Only by going do I now believe that I could return myself again and stay for much longer. Despite the obvious barrier of language, learning to work around this helped stimulate my creativity in situations and conversations I hadn’t considered previously. In other words, learning by doing.
As such, I’m now considering whether Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), which would allow me to travel alongside the writing and photography, as another potential direction of pursuit. Crucially, it would give me a purpose and community in each host country I journey to as well as free time to explore my interests, which working with Challenges Abroad in partnership with the FutureSense Foundation (FSF) did: the elusive work life balance.
During my free time, I was able to foster friendships with the other students on their respective challenges; from the University of Wolverhampton, undertaking Health and Wellbeing, and the University of Melbourne whose disciplines comprise audiology, optometry and speech pathology – as well as amass a portfolio of photojournalism. We climbed Phnom Sampov and descended into the Killing Caves, rode the bamboo train and dined on the panorama roof terrace atop the Classy Hotel, sailed through the floating village onto the Tonlé Sap and travelled to Siem Reap to watch in awe at the sunrise and sunset over Angkor Wat.
Khmer, the language untranslated into English phonetically, is, to me, unfathomable. But its people are not, exuding embrace wherever we went. Much like its neighbours Vietnam, Thailand and Loas, Cambodia is a country of explosive colour as exhibited through its history, fashion and cuisine – animated by its people, in triumph and tragedy, making the mere vision of this photographic paradise attached here, tangible.
Join Challenges Abroad in Cambodia today. Gain insights to a different culture, experience new things and begin your journey to global citizenship!
